The Report From Silver Lake free porn video

THE REPORT FROM SILVER LAKE A Classified Document by Jezebel Jade *Shoot Yourself After Reading* From the Brand Group at Silver Lake, California: A Report on the Nation of Janus and its Political and Economic Impact, with recommendations for proactive solutions. On July 23rd, 2043, Attis Projects, a group advertising itself as a resort developer, announced that it had acquired the title to a group of five atolls in the South Pacific, which it intended to isolate and fill in, forming a single crescent shaped island of some 500 square miles. The stated purpose of this project was to create a site for a new luxury resort. As this development would not have inordinately imbalanced either the economy or the politics of the region, no objections ? other than a few token complaints from environmental groups- were made. The developers tapped into a large pocket of high- pressure lava under the atolls, in essence creating five artificial volcanoes. Carefully controlling the flow of lava and volcanic ash, the developers created a ring of mountains and hills that covered an area of 9,650 square miles or slightly larger than the State of Hawaii. At this point, neighboring nations began to make rivaling claims to the landmass, but the UN decided that Attis Projects? title to the new landmass was valid and binding. A material point was that new island was still barren, and that Attis Projects claimed that ?conditioning? the soil as to be fertile would cost in the area of 24 Billion American dollars. The American State Department stated in no uncertain terms that they would never loan that kind of money to a country that ?nationalized? the island. Between 2044 and 2051, the only comment worthy development was Attis Projects? skillful use of gengineered bacteria, fungi, mosses and nematodes to vitalize the landmass. Beginning in 2051, construction and landscaping began, and finished in 2053. On March 14th, 2053, five days before the alleged ?Grand Opening? of the resort, all officials and personnel of Attis Projects disappeared. A group claiming to represent the government of ?the Nation of Janus? came forward to announce the status of a sovereign nation, and the dominion over the artificial island. Notarized documents signed by the CEO of Attis Projects assigned complete ownership of the landmass to the ?Nation of Janus?. The Nation of Janus was announced to be a Constitutional Monarchy under King Arthur and Queen Gloria, with an already extant population of 20,000 subjects. King Arthur and Queen Gloria also announced that they were, respectively, a Female to Male and a Male to Female post-operative transsexuals. He also stated that the nation of Janus was dedicated to being a ?homeland for transgenderists of all varieties?, and opened up ?Janus? to select immigration from all nations. At this point, it is crucial to understand that ?the Nation of Janus? is not a half-baked pipe dream perpetrated by a gaggle of oddball idealists. First, immediately realizing that ?Attis Projects? was nothing more than a smokescreen for the leadership cabal of ?Janus? (Attis was a Phrygian deity who was castrated and magically transformed into goddess), the CIA began an immediate investigation of the antecedents of the group. On the principle of ?follow the money?, the CIA found several persuasive, but inconclusive leads connecting Attis Projects funds to money laundries used by Pacific Rim organized crime families. In the 7- year period prior to Janus? announcement of Statehood, the leaderships of three Colombian Cartels, two Caribbean ?Posses?, a ?Mexican Mafia? family, and the 327K Tong out of Singapore all mysteriously disappeared, and their followers scattered. Their liquid assets, believed to be in the realm of roughly 3.7 Trillion American dollars, also disappeared, and are thought to be the operating funds used by Janus. Second, despite Attis? declared intentions, Janus is not dependent on tourism; in its two years of nationhood, Janus has developed a mature agricultural, light industrial, and service economy. Its agriculture is largely aquatic, based mostly on shellfish ranching and kelp harvesting. Besides being a food source for both humans and livestock, the Januseans use kelp as a basis for a wood substitute, glucose based plastics, and a fuel called Tetra-Nitrate Ethanol (or TNE). Its industry is based mostly on ?harvesting? minerals from the submarine ?stalactites? that form near submarine volcanic fissures; currently, Janus is the world?s third largest producer of Osmium and Scandium. Their light industry eschews the standard Factory model, and uses the Computer Guided Fabrication model instead. Besides tourism, Janus has become a leader in CGI animation and comic books, in a cultural boom echoing Japan?s lost ?Golden Age of Anime and Manga?. Also, in keeping with their official encouragement of Sexual Reassignment Surgeries, Janus? Medical and Pharmacological Industries are on a par with the United States, Europe or Brazil, and the implanting of fertile and genetically viable gonad rotifers is commonplace. And Third, a detailed analysis of Janus? Constitution, body of legislation and government structure reveals that their philosophy of law and governance is simple and straightforward. This simplicity isn?t a sign of naivete or primitiveness, but rather a sophisticated elegance that is the far side of complexity. Their system is flexible and responsive to the needs of the populace, without falling prey to either the ?Mob Rule? or ?Political Fashion? syndromes. These three factors- their means of gaining funding, the maturity of their economic models, and the sophistication of their political models- all point to a rule cabal operating behind the scenes. Neither ?King Arthur?, ?Queen Gloria?, Prime Minister Madeline Dumont, President of the Senate Andreas Menendez, nor Chief Justice Akiko Kazamuri are the real powers at work in Janus. All these factors show that Janus is the product of years, if not decades of deep, methodical and deliberate planning. The infiltration and manipulation of the organized crime groups for funding indicates the presence of a ruthless, sophisticated and effective covert operations group. The economic and governmental structures indicate an effective policy determining group working behind the scenes. Our first and foremost question must be: What is their true agenda? Their stated agenda of a ?Transgender Homeland? is obviously a politically correct smokescreen. The only possible uses for such a smokescreen are to camouflage their true purposes, and to attract desperate and gullible Transgenderists from around the world, to act as a living shield for the Ruling Cabal. Our group has determined that, despite their use of a Constitutional Monarchy in their figureheads- doubtless to allay fears of the First World- the Ruling Cabal is a Communist cell, working to establish a Socialist nation, while undermining America in the international markets and on the domestic political front. First and most obviously, there is their blatant encouragement of the deviant and subversive transsexual lifestyle. By creating an idyllic South Pacific haven where this unnatural travesty can seem to flourish, they undermine the Heterosexual, Patriarchal paradigm that is the backbone of American society. On the economic front, Janus has insidiously entangled its financial and industrial bases with those of the neighboring island nations. In less than two years, their neighbors have gone from being hostile and suspicious to almost completely dependent on Janusean manufactured goods, displacing American and Japanese manufactured goods in their markets. This is obviously an attempt to displace the American/European/Japanese balance of trade and influence in the region. We suspect that from there, the Januseans will try to infiltrate the Australian, New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets, with the same Economic and Political objectives. More subtly, their development of Seafood dominant aquaculture, Graphic Arts, Computer Guided Fabrication industry, their use of Tetra-Nitrate Ethanol as a fuel, and their use of alternative electricity generation methods (Wind, Solar, Wave, Tidal and Geothermal) are direct threats to the American Beef, Entertainment, Manufacturing, and Petroleum industries. While there have been no reports that Janus has offered to export TNE to Japan, the possibility is a constant threat. Janus? ways of doing business are a clear and present threat to American Industry. The Janusean models of Accountability and Responsibility of the government to the electorate pose a clear and present danger. If Janusean political methods infiltrate the American political process, the disruption of the normal ebb and flow of power between the two dominant political parties would bring chaos and destruction in the American political arena. And on a wider, social front, the Janusean pharmaceutical industry has been using their neighboring nations to test-market an array of ?Smart Drugs? that are proven to safely increase learning potential, clear thinking, creativity, accurate recall, and prolonged deep thought without the usual ?my brain hurts? reaction. The threat posed by drugs that could produce an American populace that can achieve intelligent, methodical, educated and independent economic and political decisions is too great to ignore. Making these drugs illegal wouldn?t stop them from being smuggled into the country, and would give them ?outlaw glamour?. Anti-Smart Drug advertising campaigns would be a waste of time and money. The opposite, a vigorous campaign to ?promote? Smart Drugs, and effectively ?cram them down the public?s throat? would be more effective, but would backfire once the masses caught on. The threat posed by the nation of Janus must be expunged. Normal overt methods are counter-indicated. Beginning with Thailand, so far 27 nations, most of them neighbors and trade-partners of Janus, have recognized Janus? Sovereign Nation status. Most recently, New Zealand has recognized Janus, and there is momentum in the Australian parliament to recognize them. Attempts to derail their computer superstructure have failed. After planting the idea in the Hacker community that ?hacking the trannies would be cool?, the hackers did so without disrupting the Janusean economy. The hackers have since given it up as a ?lame hack?. Attempts to infiltrate agents into Janus have so far been, with one exception, fruitless. The screening for the ?Second Wave? of immigrants has turned back the vast majority of the CIA agents sent in. Our sole agent-in-place indicates that use of Bioweapons would be counter-productive. Besides the impressive Janusean Medical and Pharmaceutical industries, our agent reports that the Janusean policy of Proactive Health Care would minimize the effect of any disease vector that we could covertly introduce into their system. Any pathogen powerful enough to significantly affect the Janusean main population would probably be traced back to American CDC. While Muslim extremists have been very vocal about condemning Janus, so far the militants among them are more interested in carrying on the Fatwah against the US. Attempts to steer them against Janus would be counterproductive. Given that these more subtle methods are useless, we must go with the most direct and overt method, while counting on the outrageousness of the move to create disbelief in the international community. We propose a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Janus. Obviously, a routine missile attack is out of the question. Also, an ?accident? with an USAF bomber ?transporting? a warhead will not work. We must turn the blame for the detonation against the Januseans themselves. We propose that an ?incident? be created where the Nation of Janus appears to have been working on weapons of mass destruction, which tragically accidentally detonated in their capitol city and main population center of Alexandria. The plan should be as simple as possible, to minimize the chance of exposure. In brief, the plan is: A: Recruit a member of the American armed forces to infiltrate Janus. Given the cunning and familiarity with the international criminal and intelligence communities shown by the Janusean Intelligence Services, using CIA, FBI, DHS or NSA personnel is contra- indicated. Since the Januseans routinely interfere with our attempts to monitor them through spy satellites, this special agent should be trained in Logistics, Surveying and Tactics. This special agent should be chosen for slightness of build, strength of personal resolve, loyalty to America and lack of sympathy for ?Alternative Lifestyles?. The special agent will NOT be informed as to the true objective of the mission, but will be told that he is to install a device that will allow our spy satellites to observe Janus from orbit. B: The special agent should be given enough cosmetic surgery to ?pass? for an impoverished pre-operative transsexual, while leaving the special agent enough of his masculine identity to give him hopes for a return to his former life. The special agent will then be given the identity of an existing American transsexual who has already been accepted as a ?Provisional? immigrant to Janus. C: The special agent will then allow himself to be transported to Janus. The special agent should be furnished with NO special equipment other than keys to open a secure box, and be given only bare bones communications protocols. Under NO circumstances should the special agent be told the identity of the agent in place. D: The agent-in-place will be informed of the coming of the special agent, and will be instructed to observe the special agent for at least two weeks before making contact. The agent in place will be given orders to give the special agent all assistance, but must NOT be informed of the special agent?s mission. During the time when the agent-in-place is giving assistance, he is NOT to communicate with the outside world at any time. E: The special agent will first seek out a location where a nuclear device can be installed within the city limits of Alexandria for optimum damage. Once that location has been determined and secured, the special agent will scout out a place where an unregistered CIA diesel sub can deliver the device undetected F: When the delivery point has been determined, the special agent will give the agent- inplace a message to send to the United States setting the location, under the cover of a routine sales request to a front import-export firm. A return message will set the date and time of the delivery, under the cover of a response from the cover identity?s family. G: When the message setting the coordinates of the delivery is received, select officials of the State Department will be primed with ?intelligence? that Janus is working on weapons of mass destruction. We will push for UN inspectors to examine Janusean military and industrial facilities. H: On the date set, an unregistered CIA diesel submarine will deliver a nuclear device to the special agent. The island?s bowl-like interior would act as a perfect medium, keeping the force of the blast contained, so that adequate destruction can be achieved with a minimal blast. We suggest a 25-megaton IB237-J device, as the warhead weighs less than 40 pounds, and is radioactive enough to destroy the Janusean population without completely invalidating the entire island or unnecessarily endangering surrounding nations. The device should be encased in an unmarked cowling, to prevent the special agent from learning its true nature. The CIA operatives are NOT to be informed of the nature of the parcel that they are delivering, and the device is to be transported in an unmarked secure box to which on the special agent has the keys. I: Once the device has been delivered, the special agent will order the agent in place to resume his normal activities. The special agent will then install the device at the firing location, and activate the device. Both the special agent and the agent in place are EXPENDIBLE, and their knowledge of the mission would make them an embarrassment to the Administration. If at all possible, the device should be triggered while the UN inspectors are in the capital, to optimize international furor. J: When the device is triggered, ?Humanitarian Relief? measures will immediately be dispatched. Care must be taken that only barely enough resources should be available to these ?Relief? forces, so that it appears that the US was taken completely by surprise. K: Once ?Relief? efforts are established, American troops are to be deployed to ?ensure their safety?. In time, the presence of these troops will support American territorial claims to the landmass. SPECIAL NOTE: While it shouldn?t be necessary to state, given the nature of this operation, it must be understood that clearance as to the true means and ends of this operation is STRICTLY NEED TO KNOW. All personnel directly connected with this operation are to be primed with the ?Counter- ECM? story, or kept completely in the dark. All paperwork regarding this operation, especially hard copies of this report, is to be closely watched and DESTROYED the minute that the CIA sub leaves for Janus. For purposes of ?Plausible Deniability?, the President, the Director of the CIA, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and other high officials are to be kept out of the loop. In closing, I must say that this is a move of last recourse, that should only be done in the name of preserving our American way of life, and our sacred Christian honor. Lemuel J. J. Mayhume Director of Strategic Research for the Brand Group ########## Major General Thomas C. Kincade reviewed the report from Silver Lake, and then looked over at his colleagues from the Navy and Marine Corps. ?All right, a ?recommendation? from these guys is as good as an order. And it?s not like the freakos don?t have it coming. But how do we ?recruit an agent? who has to dress up like a broad, if he has to ?quote- ?have a lack of sympathy for Alternative Lifestyles? ?unquote-?? Rear Admiral Harvey ?Ox? Ochslund snorted. ?That?s easy! Go through the JAG files, and pull all the guys who plead the ?Guardsman?s? Defense? in repeated donnybrook cases. Of those, we winnow out the guys who couldn?t pass for a broad in a blackout. Of those, have some captain or commander interview them for an overseas undercover operation. With the top five contenders, we ask them to play Mata Hari. If we word it right, one of the five of ?em will say yes. The others, we stick somewhere in Greenland or the like, until the dust settles.? Marine Corps Brigadier General Newton ?Ted? Parris grunted and said, ?Put Roger McClintock over at Army JAG on the rooting through the files, and Don Winnock at Navy Intelligence on whittling down the candidates to five. I?ll sell the drag show to the guys that they come up with.? ?That?s real big of you, Ted. Why you?? Parris smiled snidely. ? ?Cause if there?s anything that the USMC knows how to do, it?s talk a man into doing something stupid and make him feel like a hero for doin? it.? ########## Brigadier Parris looked over the dossier at the young man seated across the desk from him. Second Lieutenant Sherman R. McClintock sat rigidly at attention. The young man was barely a year out of VMI, and still had a lot of that cadet super-seriousness. He was barely an inch over the minimum requirement height for the Point, and slight of build. His face was heart-shaped and fine featured, except for the thin lips and beak of a nose. He had the kind of large blue eyes that drove fags wild. ?Lieutenant, do you have a problem with homosexuals?? ?No sir, I don?t.? ?But according to your record at Thurston Military Academy and Virginia Military Institute, you?ve been in several dust-ups. There?s an implication that it was because you interpreted a remark or two as gay passes.? ?Sir, I have no problems with persons of the homosexual persuasion. That would make me unfit to serve.? Which was Cadet-speak for ?I hate fags, but the Regs say that I gotta put up with ?em?. ?Hmm... McClintock. Are you related to Lt. Colonel Roger McClintock?? ?Yessir. He?s my uncle. My father is Colonel Arnold T. McClintock.? More good news. The McClintocks had been producing Army officers for over eight generations. And they knew how to deal with fags of all stripes. The boy?s size and face probably were like a red flag to the undercover lip wrists. *Heh*. The only ?sympathy? that this boy would probably show to any Homo would be a bullet to the back of the head. ?You have a very interesting Spec sheet, McClintock. Rated as an expert in Logistics, Tactics, Strategy, Combined Arms coordination, Liaison work, Intelligence gathering, Counter-Intelligence, and Site Security. Familiarity with Navigation, Orienteering, Forward Observation, Engineering, Surveying, Survival, Electronics, Communications, Data processing, Field Medicine and Demolitions. You are trained to operate fixed wing, rotor, and vectored thrust aircraft, GEVs, tanks and landing craft. You speak, read and write, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Japanese, Latin and classical Greek. God?s teeth, son, did you take every elective that the Institute had to offer?? ?No sir. There wasn?t enough time, Sir.? ?Why?? ?Specialization is for insects, Sir. You have to be prepared for whatever the enemy- or the Brass- throws at you. Otherwise, good men that you?re responsible for get killed.? Good answer. But then cadets are known for having good answers and still screwing things up seven ways to Sunday. Okay, now hit him with a question that they don?t have a textbook answer for. ?McClintock, what is discipline?? ?Sir! Discipline is the means by which a soldier-? ?Son, I want what YOU think discipline is, not what your instructors told you it is.? ?Discipline is the art of remembering that discomfort is temporary, but failure is permanent.? ?Not bad! I gotta remember that one. Okay, McClintock, let me ask you this- if I told you to step out into my outer office and kiss Captain Hubert- he?s the one with the handlebar mustache- square on the lips, would you?? ?By ?told? are you saying that it was an order?? ?Yes.? ?Well Sir, then I?d do it. I?d be trying to remember where I stowed my Listerine while I did it, but I?d do it.? ?Well, it looks like you?re as good as we?re gonna get. McClintock, I have to find a soldier to go on a special mission. This mission will not only be in mufti, but even if you make it back, you can never discuss it with anyone without direct prior permission from me. You will discuss it with no one before you leave. Your performance of this mission will not be recorded on your permanent record. Only a handful of Top Brass will even know that you have done anything, and they won?t be apprized of your name. It will take weeks of preparation, and you will be in a difficult, even nauseating situation for weeks, if not months. It will require you to do things that you will probably find personally offensive, if not downright repulsive. There is a very real chance that you may wind up in a foreign jail, or be killed. Once you get back you will receive no reward or recognition. And all this is to accomplish something that will have little or no immediate impact on the world situation. All I can tell you is that it may prevent a minor matter from becoming a national crisis. I cannot order you to take this mission. If you opt not to volunteer for this mission, it will not be held against you in any way.? ?Sir! I respectfully request permission to be accepted for this important mission, SIR!? ?Be very careful, Lieutenant. Once I tell you ANY of the particulars, we cannot allow you to drop out from this mission. As I told you, you will probably find what we?re going to ask you to do rather disgusting.? ?Sir! I respectfully repeat my request to be accepted for this mission, SIR!? ?Very well, Lieutenant, but understand that if you back down from it mission now, you?ll be spending the next five to ten years in the stockade.? ?Understood, SIR!? ?Okay. McClintock, what does the name ?Janus? mean to you?? ?The two-faced Roman god of beginnings and endings, god of doorways and- Oh, my god... That freak artificial island that they turned into a refuge for gender-benders.? ?Yes. Now, are you sorry that you volunteered, son?? ?No Sir! I was given fair warning, and I am willing to proceed with this mission to the best of my ability, Sir!? ?Good. Now it?s obvious to anyone who takes even a lingering look at this place that the whole ?Transgender Haven? spiel is a load of crap. Nobody is going to spend billions of dollars just to give a bunch of nancy-boys and bulldykes a nice place to frolic with each other. There are only four reasons that anyone would use that excuse: First, to provide a nice, politically correct, ?feel-good? excuse for constructing an entire _island_ and developing industry and agriculture on it. Second, to entice thousands gender bending dupes to act as a buffer between whoever?s behind all of this and the rest of the world. Third, to create a situation where normal, decent people will very actively NOT be looking at what going on there. And fourth, it gives them a reason to have people suddenly just drop out of nowhere. Since the Trannies going there routinely have cosmetic surgery and change their names, the people behind all of this can more or less replace ?immigrants? with their people at will. The people in their government and economy can be almost anybody and we couldn?t say that they?re not who they say they are. Almost 90% of the people in their power structure have absolutely NO previous history. Obviously, these people need to be watched.? ?You want me to go in and spy on them, sir? Isn?t that the CIA?s job?? ?The CIA has _tried_ to send in agents. With the exception of ONE guy, they all got bounced out of the country within 72 hours. One of the reasons that we?re sending someone almost fresh out of VMI is that we think that the Intelligence community?s security has been breached by the Januseans.? ?Spy satellites?? General Parris swung a computer screen around. ?See this map? What can you tell about this map?? ?Well, it?s obviously a map of the island, but it doesn?t look like a military or intelligence service map.? ?We got it from the news networks. It?s the most accurate map that we?ve been able to find. All the geological surveys that were made of the island while it was under construction mysteriously disappeared 24 hours before the Januseans declared their independence. Another thing that happened is that every attempt to focus a spy satellite camera on that landmass has failed. We think that they have some ECM system that interferes with the satellites orientation systems every time that they zero in on Janus.? ?You want me to find and sabotage these ECM stations?? ?No. First, if you did that, they?d just notice it and either fix or replace them in another area. And they?d know that there was a saboteur on their island. Second, it won?t be necessary. We have a device that will give our spy satellites undetectable orientation cues that will allow them to focus on any point on the island. Your job is to infiltrate the island, find a suitable spot in as close to the exact center of their capitol city, Alexandria, and then find a place along the outer shore where a submarine can deliver this device to you. You will install the device, calibrate the coordinates of the location in the capital, and activate the device.? ?Why not sneak in the device in a diplomatic pouch?? ?The United States has not, and will _never_ officially recognize the nation of Janus. We have no embassy or consulate, or any diplomatic representative of any kind. So, no diplomatic pouch.? ?I see. Will I be going in as a Female-to-Male transsexual?? ?I?m afraid not. Our lone agent-in-place reports that Female to Male Ts are watched significantly more closely than Male-to-Female Ts, probably because they?re expecting just such a move. And you?ll have to be able to move about unwatched.? ?This agent-in-place; why can?t _he_ install the device?? ?Because he doesn?t have any technical or surveying experience. That dingus has to be in just the right place, or we might as well not bother. No, McClintock, I?m afraid that you?re going to have to go in as a Male-to-Female T, for the simple reason that it?s the last thing that they?ll expect.? ?Will I have to...? McClintock gestured at his crotch. ?No, part of the whole premise will be that you are pre-op who?s decided to do most of ?her? transitioning on Janus. You?ll have some cheap plastic surgery- nose job, lips, boobs, butt implants- to make it look like you?re serious, but don?t worry. We won?t have them do anything that can?t be fixed when you get back.? ?What about hormones and retroviruses? Isn?t that part of the treatment?? ?Well, we?ll start you out on hormones while you?re recovering from the plastic surgery, but since this mission should only last three months- four tops- you shouldn?t worry about that. And as for the retroviruses, well, those things are expensive, so you can claim that you want to build up a nest egg before you start on those. Your mission should be over before anyone starts answering questions.? ?But what excuse will I give for returning to the States, after my mission is over?? ?Don?t worry about it. We?ll have months to work out something. If nothing else, we can say that your mother is very sick and wants to see you one last time or something sappy like that.? McClintock squirmed in his seat a bit, but settled in and focused. ?What will my cover be?? ?Good man.? Parris touched his keyspace, and the map disappeared. Two pictures replaced it. The one on the left was an average looking man in his mid twenties. The on the right was of the same man, only with a cheap, tiny, ?how can he breathe?? nose job, obvious cheek implants, large cellulose injected lips, too much makeup, a shaved chin and a cloud of blonde curls around his head. ?This is Frank a.k.a. ?Eileen? Dunbar. He is a Richmond area Air Conditioning/Refrigeration repairman and- on the long chance that you couldn?t guess- a Male to Female transsexual. He has been accepted as a Provisional Immigrant to Janus. Besides being your height and frame, Dunbar is an Air Conditioning/ Refrigeration technician. An AC repairman is, just after telephone repairman, the best possible cover job for you. It will give you an excuse to go tooling around the island unsupervised, it will give you an excuse to have a vehicle, and you will have an reason to be on roofs of the capitol. Also, there is very real demand for Air Conditioning techs on Janus. Dunbar is scheduled to leave for Janus in seven weeks. That will give you time to recover from your surgery and bone up on Air Conditioning repair. Just as he shows up at the airport for the shuttle to Janus, he will be detained incommunicado indefinitely, under the Spy Powers Act. You will replace him. We?ll put somebody on him about a week before he leaves, just so that there aren?t any stupid ?Spy Movie? complications. So, any more questions?? McClintock took a pained look at the faces on the screen. ?Just one- do I have to be a blonde?? ?YES.? ########## ?Do you remember the communications protocols?? ?Yessir.? McClintock mumbled a bit through the over-inflated lips, and launched into a rote recitation of the codes. ?What about the precise altitude and clearance for the device?? ?Got it.? McClintock twitched his back muscles; if only that idiot Dunbar hadn?t insisted on having a pair of goddamn watermelons welded to his chest! ?The secure keys?? ?In a locket, behind a picture of Dunbar?s mother.? ?How will you find our agent-in-place?? ?I won?t- he?ll find me after making sure that I?m not being watched or followed. When he?s sure, he?ll approach me and say ?how about a sweet drink for a sweet lady??, to which I?ll respond ?what a sour line?. If there is anyone around, he will then leave and re- approach me.? Parris nodded. They?d been over this a thousand times, but last minute check ups were a good way to cover pre-jump jitters. McClintock was one of the good ones. It was a damn shame that he?d have to be wasted on a suicide mission. But he _would_ get the job done, and that was what was important. Parris and McClintock watched as the Army Intelligence officer assigned to ?escort? Eileen Dunbar left ?her? hotel room with the air of a prisoner being released. A few minutes later, two DHS men came and quietly took a drugged Dunbar into custody, leaving the hotel room unlocked. Then McClintock purposefully went into her room. A half-hour later, a bellhop came to the room and helped ?Miss Dunbar? load her bags and trunks onto a cart. McClintock strode after the cart in one of Dunbar?s travelling outfits, with all the grace and confidence that six weeks of intense training can give a man. In the lobby, two more ?emigrants? were waiting with their luggage for their shuttle. They had met Dunbar in the hotel?s bar two days ago, and had formed a traveler?s bond. This was the crucial moment where the infiltration would pass or fail. ?Roxanne? Rodriguez, a diminutive ?Latina? from Chicago was almost bouncing with excitement. ?Ohhh, MAN, I thought that this day would never GET here!? Sylvia Warren, a lanky African American from New York (actually, Syossett, New York, with a five year stint on the Lower East Side), and the group?s self-appointed ?sophisticate? struck a pose in a white travelling suit that was very becoming to her dark chocolate complexion and twirled a long dark strand of hair around a finger. ?Oh yeah, girls, just look at the expressions of disapproval on all those middle-class middle- American faces, and drink it IN!? Expressions of confusion crossed both McClintock?s and Rodriguez?s faces. ?Drink it in? _Why?_? ? ?Cause, after t?day, we?ll NEVER havta see it again! Thank You, _Jesus_!? McClintock smiled through the bad injection job and Rodriguez giggled. Then Roxanne gave McClintock a look. McClintock had a bad moment. They?d counted on the basic similarity of McClintock?s and Dunbar?s faces, the obscuring effect of the plastic surgery and the general excitement to insert McClintock into the group without being noticed. It has been hoped that Rodriguez and Warren would lend McClintock an extra amount of credibility. ?Eileen, where?s Tommy? Isn?t he going to see you off to the airport?? McClintock decided to brazen it through. Dunbar fancied himself as a bit of a ?southern belle?. McClintock pursed his over plumped lips into a what he hoped was a seductive smile, draped a hand on his over enhanced chest and purred in a bad magnolia drawl, ?Well, I _hate_ long awkward good-byes, so we said all our fare-thee-wells this mornin?. Tommy?s still recuperatin? in our room.? Roxanne gave a semi-scandalized giggle and Sylvia gave an approving ?Oh, Yes!? As they waited for the shuttle, McClintock reviewed what he knew about the two. Rodriguez was a trained pharmaceutical lab technician, and had ?come out of the closet? in high school with predictable results. She fancied herself a good Catholic girl, which should prove somewhat problematic given the lack of Roman Catholic churches on Janus. Maybe there was some kind of regular shuttle to a Mission on one of the neighboring islands. In marked contrast, Warren had been a bit of a tough guy in high school, and had lied about taking art courses to his friends. He had only come out of the closet three years ago. He was a trained Graphic Artist, with good reviews on his Computer Graphics Imaging works. He had applied for immigration twice, and had only been accepted because of a drop in the number graphic artists among the applicants. This wasn?t a reflection on Warren?s suitability or talent (or at least the Janusean Immigration Officials claimed); just a matter of the overwhelming numbers of artists that normally applied. Even so, McClintock suspected that Sylvia was going to be spending a lot of time working kelp beds or waiting tables before a real job opened up. Finally their shuttle arrived, and they piled in next to what appeared to be two stocky men. The two groups gave each other the polite smiles that you give to someone that you think is absolutely nuts, but you aren?t in a position to cast asparagus. They picked up two more groups of three (?Male? and ?Female? respectively) at other hotels and the shuttle finally headed towards LAX. At LAX, the group was given the use of the VIP lounge, to the subdued dismay of a junior Congressman from Ohio and a second string movie producer. More shuttles came in, disgorging more ?migr?s, until there were 46 of them in the VIP lounge. About an hour and a half after McClintock, Rodriguez and Warren got there, the quarterly shuttle jet to Janus arrived and had to spend another hour being fueled and maintained. Even so, when the jet was finally ready to take off there was the inevitable last minute dash by a shuttle with six passengers that had gotten tied up in a LA traffic snarl. After all that waiting, the collected huddled mass yearning to breathe free gave a deep breath of relaxation as the jet cleared the runway and began its climb. The horror stories of borderline psychotic homophobes shooting model rockets into jet intakes or throwing molotov cocktails at the jets hadn?t done anyone?s nerves any good. Once everyone was back on the plane after the layover in Hawaii, a pair wearing uniform blazers with the crest of the nation of Janus on the breast stepped to the front of the cabin. One was a tall Mediterranean looking man and the other was a perky looking Asian woman. ?Greetings, ? started the Mediterranean looking guy, ?we are your Immigration workers for this flight. My name is Reymondo DiRavenna.? ?And mine is Akiko Mitsuhari. As you may have guessed, we are Transsexuals, even as all of you are. You?ve all been pre-accepted, so we?ll do your orientation lecture during the flight. It will still take several hours even after the layover, so why waste your first heady few hours on Janus with a boring lecture? Don?t worry, there will be an in-flight movie afterwards. Since everyone on this flight speaks English, we will conduct this lecture in that language. English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic signs and texts are very common in Janus, but the official language is Greek. This is mostly to stress the international nature of Janus, and to promote a sense of our having a culture distinct from Western Commercial Culture. If you don?t speak Greek, don?t worry; as we said before, the odds are that someone around you speaks whatever is a language that you do understand. And you will be given every opportunity to pick up the beautiful language of Greek. This lecture is to give you an orientation to how things are run on Janus. As you know, Janus is a very young nation, and most of the major nations don?t recognize us. As a result, we expect a lot out of our citizens, both the established and the newcomers.? She went on to explain that Janus was a high personal involvement country. While no one was allowed to immigrate unless there was at least one job opening for someone of their skills, everyone was expected to pull a ?tax shift? of two weeks when they first entered. She explained that Janusean citizens had the option of paying their income taxes in money, or of meeting their obligation through doing shifts of work that directly benefited the commonweal, such as road work, street sweeping, kelp harvesting or some other labor intensive job. As a rule, most Januseans were either saving up for some medical work, or needed the capital for their business, so only the most successful found it cost-effective not to meet their tax burdens by doing a little weekend work for the country. She also went on to say that while Janus was too young and small to have a criminal population (not to mention the fact that career criminals found it almost impossible to get past Immigration) there were Laws, Police and Jails on Janus. Even if you were only in for a weekend for Drunk & Disorderly, prisoners were expected to work to earn their keep- there was no lounging around on the tax-payers? dime. Reymondo and Akiko spent the better part of two hours explaining the principles of Janusean society, but the thing that really mattered to McClintock was the idea of ?Big Brothers/Sisters?. Newcomers were paired up with a citizen of the same sex. The ?Big Sister? would help the newcomer find their way around, find a place to live (beyond the immigrants? dormitory), and generally get used to the place. It immediately occurred to McClintock that ?Big Sister? was also probably checking the immigrants for infiltrators, journalists, and people too proud to admit that maybe they made a mistake coming here. The implication that some might wind up regretting their decision must have been obvious. The next thing that Reymondo and Akiko talked about was the fact that out of every quarterly shift of 100 people (50 from the Americas and Western Europe, 50 from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) at least 7 people, once as many as 13, went back to their old lives. McClintock idly wondered if that bit was meant to encourage last minute walkouts, or to lessen the stress of people leaving their entire world behind by offering an option. The lecture went on for two hours, including Questions and Answers. Still, after Akiko and Reymondo wound up, there was still quite a while before the shuttle jet landed at the airport at Olympia. McClintock found the in-flight movie- a particularly puerile ?chick flick?- boring, so he got up and checked out the lounge. The lounge was small and rather cramped. He ordered a beer, and actually got a real, honest- to- god beer, instead of what airlines usually serve. He was settling down to enjoy the beer when the sight of a boy in a dress caught his eye. Given the nature of the flight, a boy in a dress wasn?t that unusual; what was odd was that the boy looked to be the ripe old age of 14 or 15. The kid was short, maybe five foot nothing, slight, and had a bad case of acne. Under the acne, his face was very much a boy?s face, except for a pair of large soulful blue eyes. His He was wearing a thin, light blue sundress that just came down to the knees. The boy sat down and ordered a soft drink. A dark haired ?man? wearing casual travel clothes beat McClintock to the punch. ?Aren?t you a little young to be on this flight, kid?? The kid looked challengingly in the FtM?s eyes and said, ?Well then, you?d better call the flight attendant, and have them turn the plane around, shouldn?t you?? ?Whoa, I?m not telling you to get off the boat, kid! I just didn?t know that Janus accepted minors!? ?For the most part, they don?t. They only take in transgendered kids who have been formally disowned by their families.? The boy?s voice dropped a bit. ?And it doesn?t hurt that the Child Welfare authorities don?t want to have to deal with you, either.? The FtM started to say something comforting, but McClintock could tell that the boy didn?t want to be comforted. So, he jumped into the conversation and steered the discussion away from the boy personally. ?So, are there many kids on Janus?? ?They told me that there are about 300 teenagers on Janus. From 14 to 19, I think.? ?I?m amazed that the Juvenile Authorities allow it.? ?Well, from what the Immigration people told me, they don?t really _allow_ it. The Immigration people don?t take kids unless we prove that we?re homeless or that our parents have disowned up or sumthin?. The way that the guy I talked to put it, they can?t afford to take anyone who ?has a name?.? ?Yuck! Talk about a nasty turn of phrase!? ?Well, what he meant was that if we were in the system, that the US could say that this kid or that was missing and that they were ?harboring? ?em on Janus, there?d be a big stink. Usually, they don?t ship us off with the adults, but the secret plane that they take the kids in was full up, an? I didn?t wanna wait another three months.? ?Hey, can?t blame y?there. But, aren?t you worried about going to what after all is a foreign country, with no one to watch out for you? I mean, nobody really knows that you?re going to be there?? ?Hey, lady- I spent two years livin? on the streets of LA. After that, what can they do to me that hasn?t already been done?? ?God! How did you get by?? The boy?s blue eyes went bleak and hard. ?How do you _think_ I got by?? Once again, McClintock steered the conversation into safer waters. ?So, do you have any plans for what you?ll be doing on Janus?? The boy shrugged. ?From what the Immigration Officer told me, I?ll pretty much be on my own, unless I link up with a ?Sponsor?. That?s what they call a kind of surrogate parent.? The FtM decided to get back in the conversation. ?Well then, you don?t have anything to worry about! Your average T, FtM or MtF, has all _kinds_ of frustrated paternal instincts!? ?Maybe-?, the boy returned sourly. He bared his teeth in a non-snarl. His teeth spraddled in all directions. Even in England, he?d be considered a dental nightmare. ?-Maybe not.? That explained a lot to McClintock. He reached out and laid a gentle hand on the boy?s jaw. ?I?ve seen teeth like that before. It usually happens because you?ve had two or more permanent teeth knocked out while the other ones were coming in. Who hit you, honey?? The boy flinched. ?My Dad. He hates ?queers?. He said that he was gonna beat it outta me, even if he hadda kill me t?do it.? ?Y?know, you aren?t that bad looking, without the teeth and all. I assume that you?re going to get it fixed?? ?Yeah. I read in a magazine that they can correct stuff like this with that new bone molding technique that they use instead of bone-shaving and implants.? ?Oooh. That?s _expensive_! Do you have plans for how you?re going to make the money?? ?Nope. If you plan, then you only see what you planned for. I?m just gonna take what comes my way, as it comes.? ?Good Luck, kid. You?re going to need it.? McClintock?s reading of the situation was that the boy-girl desperately wanted someone to care about him, but he had been disappointed too many times in the past. He?d had one casual stranger too many express concerns for him, and then just wander off for one reason or another. Some just after they saw the kid?s mouth for the first time. Ironically, the best way to get the kid to warm up to you would probably just to be there and not either shoo him off or smother him. McClintock finished his beer and returned to his seat. He spent most of the remainder of the trip trying to care about the heroine of the rather turgid romance novel that ?Eileen? Dunbar had brought along ########## After several hours, the shuttle began its final approach to Olympia International Airport, which was just outside Olympia, Janus? tourism center. Like most of the tourism-biased townships, Olympia was situated on the Leeward side of the Outward Shore, the side of the ring of artificial mountains that faced away from the Center Lagoon. Along with the adults, Lindsey Thompson walked down the ladder from the shuttle and gaped at the lush green mountains. Then she remembered her spraddle teeth and quickly shut her mouth. Still, she took a deep breath. Janus. She was finally in a place where she had a chance! Pulling her wrap around her and adjusting her carry-on strap, she hurried to the main airport terminal. Unlike most airports, which bent over backwards to look ?cutting edge and modern?, the Olympia terminal was a two-story Victorian looking affair of white- washed wood with lots of ?gingerbread? decoration. Inside the terminal, the immigrants were guided into a large room, where they took a vow of allegiance to Janus as a preliminary to being accepted as Provisional Citizens. They were told that this ?provisional? status would last for six months, during which time they could renounce their vow and return to their native country without any repercussions. Then, one by one, they were paired off with their ?big brother? or ?sister?. Lindsey?s ?Big Sister? was an attractive Hindi woman who looked to be about 35, wore a blue sari with gold patterning, and lots of gold jewelry. She smiled and said in an unexpected upper-crust British accent, ?Hello, Lindsey, and welcome to Janus. My name is Sidhira, and I?ll be your ?Big Sister? for your first few months here.? Lindsey shook her hand. ?Hi. Ah, exactly what does being my ?Big Sister? mean?? ?Well, one of the reasons that we?re taking it so slow with immigration is that we don?t want to repeat the mistakes that America, Canada and Australia made. We can?t afford to have a lot of people coming in here all crushed together, and stepping all over each other trying to get ahead. So, we bring them in groups of a hundred, fifty from the West, and fifty from the East. This lets newcomers get used to the place and find their niche, without snarling up our rather delicate economy. Part of getting newcomers used to Janus is having someone that you know, who can explain things and make sure that you?re getting along all right.? ?Sort of like a Probation Officer.? ?You haven?t committed any crime, Lindsey. You?re just trying to live your life as you believe that it should be. Who am _I_ to say that you shouldn?t?? ?Okay, I can handle that. So, what now? The Immigration Officer that I spoke to didn?t say much about how minors are treated on Janus. I got the impression that he didn?t want to make too many promises.? Sidhira smiled and said, ?Ah, FAQ #43. It would rank higher, but we don?t really get that many minors. Well, if you thought that coming to Janus would get you out of going to school, forget it! You?ll go to a school for minor in the capitol part-time.? ?Part-time?? ?Yes. Since our classes are so much smaller to begin with, and we have so many volunteer teachers, and we put so much money into instructional software, we only have three hours a day of traditional sit-down classes. The rest is homework on your own time. We don?t have a lot of patience for the American system of institutionalized babysitting that they use for schools. But don?t think that you?ll have lots of time for hanging around in the malls! At least until you are ?adopted? by a Sponsor, you?ll be expected to earn your own keep and spending money with a part-time job.? ?What kind of job?? ?Well, after the first few weeks, you?ll be able to choose from whoever?s hiring, but it?s kind of traditional that everyone- and I DO mean _everyone_ does at least two weeks in the Skunk Works.? ?Skunk Works?? ?The Kelp Processing Plant down by Barratarria. Kelp is a major product here on Janus, we use it all over the place, but getting people to actually do the work in the plant is a chore.? ?The work?s that hard?? ?Not really, mostly a matter of minding the machines, but it smells to high heaven. Why do you think they call it the ?Skunk Works?? On the bright side, if your nose can stand to get used to it, the work isn?t that bad, and the pay?s good.? ?How good?? ?You?ll probably pay off your living debt for the first month in the first week, and you?ll earn lots of spending cash in the second. Of course, by then you?ll probably have been adopted, and your Sponsor will take over the expense of raising you and giving you an allowance. There?s a long waiting list for people who want to adopt a kid.? ?Maybe,? Lindsey flashed her snaggle-toothed smile. ?Maybe not.? Sidhira flinched, and her manner became ever so slightly more distant, in a way that Lindsey was all too familiar with. They chatted a bit more as they waited for Lindsey?s luggage to make it through Customs Inspection. Then Sidhira took Lindsey out of the terminal, to one of the pedal cabstands. They had to wait for a cab to return, but Lindsey was more than rewarded by getting a hunky bronzed 17-something cab-boy. The only thing that kept her from grinning at him like an idiot was the bitter fact of the condition of her mouth. She didn?t care how stinky the ?Skunk Works? were; she?d work double shifts there in order to get rid of the mangled buzzsaw that hid behind her lips! It took the pedalcab a half hour to pull up to an open train station that looked like something from the turn of the 20th Century, where an honest-to-god steam locomotive was waiting for the last stragglers. It turned out that the steam engine was there mostly for the tourists, and they changed trains at a town called Selene. The new train was a sleek, climate controlled maglev ultraspeed, that whipped through the 40 mile- tunnel through the mountains that separated the Outer and Inner Shores in less than 15 minutes. As they were waiting for the train to start, Lindsey asked, ?So, how long have you lived on Janus, Sidhira?? ?Oh, years! You see, I?m a First Waver. I was part of the workforce that conditioned the soil and built the townships.? ?Really?? ?Don?t be that impressed. There were 20,000 of us, and so far. There are only 900-odd of you Second Wavers. Most of the people that you?re going to meet are First Wavers.? ?Okay, cool. But there?s a question that I?ve gotta ask- where did you First Wavers _come from_? I mean, nobody knows were you people came from! You just sort of dropped out of the sky!? Sidhira sadly smiled and shook her head. ?Ah, FAQ #6. Okay, here?s what happened. Back at the turn of the millennium, Transsexuals were just sort of crawling along, trailing behind the Gays and Lesbians in the ?Alternative Lifestyle? movement, as it was called back then. Part of their problem was that TSs were, for the most part, not a real group, just a collection of individuals, most of who planned to drop out as soon as they had their SRS. Another major problem was the fact that, even with a better common understanding of Transsexualism, the bias against TSs was- and still is- very fierce. So, with all the paranoia and denial that we have to go through, a large portion are traumatized to near emotional crippling. As a result, any Transsexual group that had an open admissions policy was riddled with neurotics and flakes. It wasn?t a fluke that the average Transsexual group was a Therapy group. ?Then a group of TSs in the greater Chicago area got together and decided to form a mutual assistance association. They helped each other in getting jobs, in starting up businesses, and they pooled their money for financial projects. The major thing was that membership in their group was strictly by invitation only. Since they weren?t a program that accepted money from the government at any level, they were able to restrict their membership to TSs who had their act together. Because they insisted on members who were actually an _asset_ to the group, they prospered. They caught a lot of flack from Liberal types who accused them of Elitism, but the idea still caught on. By the mid- Teens, there were similar Transsexual mutual support groups across the United States, Canada, the UK, the ANZAC nations and most of Western Europe. By the mid-Twenties, there such groups in almost every nation on the face of the Earth, and the Gays and Lesbians were also pulling pretty much the same stunt.? ?If it was so successful, howcum I never heard of it before? I mean, was it some kind of secret conspiracy?? ?Oh, No! It wasn?t a _secret_. We just didn?t advertise it. And the mainstream has always preferred to ignore what we ?Alternative Lifestyle? types do. At any rate, as a matter of course these groups had started to form semi-formal ties with each other. By the Thirties, cooperation among these groups was so regular that they started calling themselves ?The Association?. Despite the fact that they were becoming so successful- or maybe _because_ of it, tolerance for TSs was steadily declining. The more successfully that we could transition, the better we could blend into the mainstream. That triggered the paranoia of a lot of people. After all, as long as we were these pathetic, tragicomic misfits and losers who were regulated more or less to poverty, we didn?t threaten anyone. But a competent, cohesive group of financially active people who couldn?t be easily tracked rather hits the ?Secret Society? reflex in a lot of people. So the American/ European/ Japanese Power Elite started putting the putting the squeeze on us. Nothing too overt, mind you- just the usual freezing out of anyone that they thought was connected to us. ?We decided that we had three options open to us- we could go completely underground. But how do you get somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty thousand people to disappear and resurface somewhere else? We could try to fight them- right, like _that_ would work! Or, we could go somewhere else. But where? There isn?t a lot of unclaimed wilderness lying around these days. And if we tried to settle in Orbit, we?d push every paranoid button that the Power Elite has. Why do you think that almost 75 years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, there?s only the most basic orbital installations up and running? The Power Elite doesn?t like the idea of having rocks dropped on their heads from five miles up.? ?So, you all decided to build this island from scratch?? ?Not really. We decided to try all of the above. Building Janus is only one of several plans that the Association of twenty years ago came up with. It?s one of the few that has managed to work out.? ?Others worked? What are they?? Sidhira smiled enigmatically. ?Not mine to tell.? ?If the Association was so successful, how did you get all twenty thousand members to give up their lives to come to Janus?? ?Simple- we didn?t. The twenty thousand First Wavers are a minority in the Association. There are still roughly thirty thousand members living under cover back in the outside world. You see, this way we haven?t put all our eggs in one basket. If the Janus project falls on it?s face in, oh say, ten years, then the others will make sure that we have somewhere to go. Don?t worry- you Second Wavers will also have a place. If the Nation of Janus takes off, then the others can come live here or stay where they are, as they see fit. And, in the meantime, the Power Elite has the mysterious Nation of Janus to worry about, instead of a so-called ?secret society?. People tend to worry about the wolf that they can see, instead of the wolf they can?t see.? ?But why would this ?Power Elite? be so wigged out by the Association?? ?Well, first and foremost, the Association wasn?t _them_. They were successful and wealthy, and they didn?t really want to become members of the Power Elite?s country club set. Having a bunch of smart and capable operators who aren?t them around always makes the Old Money crowd nervous. And secondly, one of the reasons that the Association was so successful was that they weren?t afraid to upset applecarts.? ?Applecarts?? ?Lindsey, there are thousands of really good business ideas and technologies that don?t get put into operation because the people with the real money don?t want to risk that money in a chancy deal. Also, new methods and technologies tend to upset existing markets. Wall Street isn?t going to mess up an already existing good situation by trying anything really new, just because it would actually help the common people. But the Association wasn?t tied into that network of commitment, so we were open to trying all kinds of new things. The Association made a lot of money, and the Power Elite lost a lot of money. For instance, I was involved in a project to ?ranch? lobsters and other shellfish in India. It was a great idea, and got a lot of religiously acceptable protein to the Indian people. But it cut into the market share of a Japanese fishing concern, so they dug up a quack who said that our ?ranching? methods were ?unclean. Business dropped off, and a whole bunch of behind the scenes string pulling went on, and that Japanese firm wound up owning the ranches. _Then_ miraculously, they found out how to make the lobsters ?clean?- actually, they just put ?clean? on the packaging- and started selling them again. So, Our being Transsexuals was just sort of the icing on the cake. You see, the Power Elite has two sets of rules- one for the average person, regardless of nationality, and another for themselves. Well, actually, the only real rule that they follow would be ?If you got away with it, then you were right?.? Lindsey looked Sidhira over. ?Are you on the lam, or something?? Sidhira laughed. ?No, no- just still a little bitter. But I have a new life now. But back to you-? Sidhira went on to explain that Lindsey would be living in a ?transients dormitory?, sort of a hotel for Newcomers and for people in the capitol overnight; sort of a subsidized no-frills hotel. After a bit more of that, the train pulled out of the tunnel, into the interior of the island. As the train passed through a few townships, Lindsey noticed that the architecture of the Inner Shore was different from the Outer Shore. The buildings and such that she?d seen on the Outer Shore had an over-decorative, slightly precious quality that she associated with places like Disneyland and other Southern California theme parks. The buildings there went for ?eccentric Victorian?, ?idyllic Shinto shrine?, ?Ancient Greek? or a couple of other looks. The buildings that she was passing were a lot more pragmatic looking. Not as ugly or bleak as the suburban ticky-tacky that she was used to, they just looked like people actually lived or worked there, instead of a tourist resort. Then the train pulled into Alexandria. Then things got busy again. Sidhira got Lindsey?s stuff together and hire one of those dinky little ?city cars? that you can hire by the hour. As they drove through the city, Lindsey didn?t get a sense that she was in an American city. There was something about the place that reminded her of the better parts of European cities that she?d seen in movies and on TV. When the ?city car? stopped at a red light, Lindsey?s eye hit a round red mailbox and it hit her- the mailbox and almost everything else that she?d seen was both well-made and tastefully designed. In America, public things were either cheap or patently artificial. The Januseans insisted that the country that they were building was going to be a beautiful one; they imposed their taste on everything around them, as she?d heard that the French did. Even the Transients? Dorm was tastefully done, though it was obviously not designed to make the transients willing to overstay their welcome. Sidhira checked her in at the front desk and helped her get her stuff up to her room. The room was larger than one at a YMCA would be, but only barely so. The bed was a futon that pulled up into a couch, and the TV/computer unit was basically an oversized laptop that was hardwired into the local data/entertainment web and was bolted to the desk. On the door was a schematic that pointed out in five languages where the toilet, showers and emergency exits were. Adjusting Lindsey?s clothes in the closet, Sidhira told Lindsey that they?d go shopping for school uniforms and other new clothes tomorrow. ?Most Newcomers can stay here for three months, and then they?re expected to find a place of their own. Not that many take that much time, but we think that it?s best to have that understood. As a minor, you can stay here for as long as you need to be matched up with a Sponsor. It shouldn?t take that long- we Januseans have strong maternal instincts.? Maybe, Lindsey thought to herself as she absentl